CRISIS IN THE BALKANS: THE OVERVIEW

CRISIS IN THE BALKANS: THE OVERVIEW; WARRANTS SERVED FOR SERBS' LEADER AND 4 ASSISTANTS

By ROGER COHEN

Published: May 28, 1999

THE HAGUE, May 27—
The international tribunal issued an arrest warrant here today for Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslav President, charging him and other senior officials with crimes against humanity in Kosovo, including the murder, forced deportation and persecution of ethnic Albanians.

Announcing the indictment of Mr. Milosevic and four of his top associates, Louise Arbour, the chief prosecutor, said arrest warrants for the five had been served on all member states of the United Nations and on Switzerland.

''The world is now a much smaller place for these men,'' she said. ''We require these states, including Yugoslavia, to arrest the accused if they are within their jurisdiction and deliver them to The Hague for trial.''

The others accused in the 42-page indictment are Milan Milutinovic, the Serbian President and long a close aide to Mr. Milosevic; Dragoljub Ojdanic, the chief of staff of the Yugoslav armed forces and former commander of an army corps active in eastern Bosnia; Nikola Sainovic, the Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia, and Vlajko Stojilkovic, the Minister of Internal Affairs. [Key sections of the indictment, pages A12-A13.]

In effect, the charges branded the Yugoslav Government as a criminal regime, an extraordinary development. But the arrest of Mr. Milosevic, whose tenacity in holding onto power is by now notorious, appeared highly unlikely in the short term.

Still, the indictment clearly changed the terms of the hectic international quest for a peace settlement to end the two-month-old NATO bombardment of Yugoslavia.

The charges of crimes including the forced deportation of 740,000 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo this year and the murder of more than 340 identified Albanians instantly turned Mr. Milosevic into little short of an international pariah.

They made it almost impossible for him to travel abroad, rendered his signature on any international document deeply suspect, and made negotiation with him awkward -- but not illegal -- for any state respecting the United Nations Charter.

Despite these diplomatic difficulties, President Clinton formally backed the indictment. ''I welcome the decision of the international war crimes tribunal to indict Slobodan Milosevic and four other senior Serbian leaders of crimes against humanity and war crimes,'' he said in a statement.

Behind the scenes, however, court officials said the United States had expressed serious concerns about the timing when informed a few days ago about the indictment.

''The objections to our timing were quite strong, and it took a while for everyone to understand,'' one tribunal official said. ''We had to patiently explain to Washington and some other capitals that there was no alternative to our procedure.''

Strobe Talbott, the Deputy Secretary of State, is deeply involved in Russian-led diplomatic efforts to end the war. The failure of these efforts would inevitably lead to greater pressure for a ground invasion of Kosovo by NATO forces, a step that President Clinton opposes.

Viktor S. Chernomyrdin, Russia's envoy to the Balkans, is to travel to Belgrade on Friday for a meeting with Mr. Milosevic, and he plainly doubted the ''appropriateness'' of the decision. The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying the indictment was ''politically motivated,'' and Russian officials said talking to the Yugoslav President remained essential.

Ms. Arbour, however, apparently disagrees. ''Although the accused are entitled to the benefit of the presumption of innocence until they are convicted, the evidence upon which this indictment was confirmed raises serious questions about their suitability to be the guarantors of any deal, let alone a peace agreement,'' she said.

But the 52-year-old Canadian judge, who was appointed to the tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 1996, added that she did not expect politicians to tell her how to do her work, and ''I have no intention of telling them how to do their work.''

Mr. Milosevic did not comment on the indictment yesterday. But Goran Matic, a Yugoslav Minister Without Portfolio, said the tribunal had no authority in what he described as an internal police action, and he accused the court of acting on behalf of the United States to pressure Yugoslavia to capitulate in Kosovo.

While the Clinton Administration expressed support for the indictment, it also made clear that the indictment would not preclude contact with Mr. Milosevic if it was necessary. Still, it is evident that the Western view of the Serbian leader has changed radically as evidence of his consistent brutality has mounted. Long seen as an unsavory strongman who could also be a de facto ally, as he was in the negotiation of a Bosnian peace, Mr. Milosevic now appears to be viewed as the central obstacle to Balkan peace, even if he remains, for the moment, an interlocutor.

Court officials said this change in the Western attitudes opened the way for what amounted to a remarkably fast indictment by giving Ms. Arbour access to intelligence and other information long denied to her by Western governments.